Susi... not Suzi Q, not Suey... just Susi. Welcome to my Soap Box. Everything is up for discussion... Relationships, politics, religion, current events, stupid people... EVERYTHING!
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Monday, October 14, 2013

Happy "You Have Off To Honor A Douche Bag" Day

My early education touted Christopher Columbus as the hero who stumbled upon
our land and set events in motion that led to the inevitability of this
supposedly great country - the United States of America. Further education
revealed that among other things he was not a hero, not even a
great man. One who was especially not worthy of honor. He was, in actuality, the
single biggest contributing factor that slavery was introduced in this country,
but we're going honor him. WTF am I missing?

After understanding his real contribution to our history, I've consistently
asked the question - how can a country continue to celebrate Columbus Day
knowing who he was, what he did, and especially what he didn't
do! He was a despicable human being, and certainly not someone who deserves a
federally mandated holiday. I don’t know if you can even call him a human
being considering how barbaric he actually was. But since 1937 we have been
honoring him with his own personal day based on a skewed retelling of our
history.

Many adults, in addition to children in our school system, don't
understand the brutalities the Indians and others suffered at the hands of
Christopher Columbus. Or understand the spin of those events since then that
contribute to their current understanding of our history. It was prettied up to
make it more palatable thus justifying it becoming a national holiday. "The worshipful
biographical vignettes of Columbus in our textbooks serve to indoctrinate
students into a mindless endorsement of colonialism that is strikingly
inappropriate in today's post-colonial era." - from
Lies My Teacher Told Me. In the spirit of teaching
patriotism, Columbus was used and glorified; what we lost in the process was
reality. The ugly reality of what he did on this soil.

Our schools would pretend that he contributed so much and is worthy of
national praise, our kids being fed bullshit to keep the lie alive; passed on
to create the cognitive dissonance that keeps this holiday in place to this
day. Just as religion bypasses the horrors in the bible, so does the history being
taught in schools with respect to our actual history. The good parts of his
life, if there are any, do not wipe out the fact that this was an incredibly
brutal and disgusting man.

Let’s stick with the truth and decide more reasonable actions today, shall
we? Let’s lose this holiday all together or replace it with something that should
absolutely be honored; the Indian Nations who were decimated at the hands of
Columbus comes to mind. I’d be all for honoring their culture, recognizing
their sacrifices and highlighting the real truth about Columbus’ brutalities. What
was lost could be resurrected and given the proper recognition it deserves. National
Indian Day, I like the sound of that.

But being honest would mean we’d have to look at our own brutal humanity in the
face and accept the fact that our ancestors took violently then what we claim
to have today. What we base our great nation on is the terrifying slaughter and
enslavement of other human beings. We rose from their ashes, we took their
future to cement having our own and it did
start with Columbus. It’s disgusting, but it’s the truth and it’s ugly. And it
is the reality of our past.

How we act today, what we honor today… that should be about what is and was the best we are or had to
offer. And it should be deeply rooted in the truth.

So long as we continue to celebrate Columbus Day, we are doing ourselves a
disservice as human beings by recognizing this douche bag as a hero. I won’t do
it. I hope you don’t either.

On this holiday, please educate yourself more about this man from our past and then pass on your knowledge to your fellow human beings. Only with the truth and understanding will we have a present and future worth having; it means we're doing it better than who lived before us.

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